Victor Rice – Dub Discovers From Version City
Tracklist:
1.) Roll Down Dub (Coldspot 8 )
2.) Seven Dub (Da Whole Thing)
3.) Dub All Over (Hyphen One)
4.) Dub Season (King Django)
5.) You Said Dub (King Django)
6.) Rockin’ Dubbin’ (King Django & Dr. Ring Ring)
7.) NYC Dub (The Radiation Kings)
8.) I-Story Dub (Rocker T.)
9.) New Batch Dub (Stubborn All-Stars)
10.) Brother Dub
11.) FCC Dub
12.) Krishna Dub
13.) Carlene Dub (Westbound Train)
The Pier Album Rating:
Release Date: August 7th, 2012
Record Label: Stubborn Records
Group Background:
New York City artist and producer, Victor Rice, started out his music career in 1988 with ska band The Scofflaws, and began producing for many of the bands on the Moon Records Label. Soon after he began to experiment with dub style music when he got together with King Django, founder of Version City Studios in New York. It was with Version City and their label Stubborn Records that Victor Rice continued his experimentation with dub music and recorded his first solo album At Version City.
Soon after, Rice moved down to Sao Paolo, Brazil and continued to produce records for various style of music. In 2004 he released his sophomore album titled In America, which got its name from Victor’s work on the release in both North and South America. Recently, he has continued playing with the Victor Rice octet and has taken his dub skills to the stage, making use of the delay, echo, and reverb effects that set him apart from the more traditional roots-reggae sound of Jamaican dub.
Album Review:
I found Dub Discoveries From Version City to be somewhat of an interesting release, combining the skills of several other artists to create an obviously dub heavy compilation. The opening track, by Coldspot 8, incorporates heavy use of the reverb effect with the occasional echoed lyrical riff; qualities that were mimicked in some of the songs that followed. Seven Dub brought something a little different to the table with fast paced drum beats and a more upbeat style. However, I thought that the album as a whole would have benefited from more variety, because many of the tracks used the same effects and dub elements, the tracklist began to run together.
As the track list progresses, King Django, founder of Version City Studios, makes his three-track contribution with Dub Season, You Said Dub, and Rockin’ Dubbin’, all of which are obviously saturated with typical characteristics of the genre. I did, however, find that for some reason Dub Season set itself apart from some of the other pieces here. Not only did it incorporate a more noticeable lyrical side, but you could also hear the keys making their presence known which I liked.
Victor Rice’s original material comes in towards the end to close out the record with Brother Dub, FCC Dub and Krishna Dub. I got a generally laid back vibe from his work, but it did not really stand out to me over what preceded it. Overall, I thought Dub Discoveries From Version City was decent, but would have been helped by more variety. However, for the die hard dub fans out there, this may be right up your alley.
Written & Reviewed By: Jason Gallagher
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